This is not a movie for kids. But if you want Grisham-style drama, this may be your cup of tea. I'm saddened to see the vacuous reviews written by people whose sense of literature is the movie theater. If you have not read Grossman's "On Killing", Grisham's "A Time to Kill" or Gladwell's "Outliers" (specifically the chapter A Culture of Honor), then you might not appreciate how authentic this movie is. This is likely a film that is better left for the well-read or the critics. But that doesn't mean that a curious film aficionado with an open mind and a tolerance for how down a human can get might not appreciate the film. A decade from now people will likely also appreciate just how bad the times were that led to the film's backdrop. It will all make sense once the viewer appreciates all that the film has to offer. Be prepared to discuss the nuances of justice with your teenage kids if they see this film. And understand that the ending is suggested rather than explicitly stated.

I am interested to see this movie. Years ago, I worked in a call center for a pizza chain based in Pittsburgh, and we stopped taking delivery orders from anywhere in Braddock (where the movie is filmed), because a driver was lured there and murdered. In the last few years, things have apparently changed for the better in the area.

I used to talk to someone now and then at a bar in the 'burgh who would tell me about his participation in underground kickboxing tournaments. Interesting to think about the different circles and experiences that exist in the city.

The following quote from Gladwell's book Outliers explains the character (and his kin) played by Woody Harrelson in the movie.

Gladwell wrote:

Cultures of honor tend to take root in highlands and other marginally fertile areas, such as Sicily or the mountainous Basque regions of Spain. If you live on some rocky mountainside, the explanation goes, you can't farm. You probably raise goats or sheep, and the kind of culture that grows up around being a herdsman is very different from the culture that grows up around growing crops. The survival of a farmer depends on the cooperation of others in the community. But a herdsman is off by himself. Farmers also don't have to worry that their livelihood will be stolen in the night, because crops can't easily be stolen unless, of course, a thief wants to go to the trouble of harvesting an entire field on his own. But a herdsman does have to worry. He's under constant threat of ruin through the loss of his animals. So he has to be aggressive: he has to make it clear, through his words and deeds, that he is not weak.

Bill: "The following quote from Gladwell's book Outliers explains the character (and his kin) played by Woody Harrelson in the movie."

" But a herdsman does have to worry. He's under constant threat of ruin through the loss of his animals. So he has to be aggressive: he has to make it clear, through his words and deeds, that he is not weak."

This might explain a psychopath, if one forgets that a herdsman's purpose was to protect his flock, and decides that a herdsman's purpose is to pimp women, sell weapons and drugs to children and try to undermine the laws of the civilization in which he lives.

Hollywood is cool, and it does what it can, but the fact of the matter is, that no criminal who knows what he is about would let himself display that stupid grin. When people talk business, they are all business.

*Every* group has both law-abiding and lawless individuals. These highlanders however have more than their fair share of folks who just don't want to be messed with. They are tough, and they can be scary. And it's genetic. That's just the way they are wired.

The highlanders I've run into on my trips in-between Richmond and Louisville are some of the nicest people you'll ever want to meet. But passion has both yin and yang. You sense that you are in different company.

I can name maybe 3 "highlander types" who frequent these forums. I never quite understood my interactions with them until reading Gladwell. Now I get it, and we are all good friends.

Check out this History Channel series when you get a chance. This isn't fiction; this is the real thing.

I think I'll have to get the book. The couple of excerpts you posted are very interesting.

My best friend growing up was Scottish on his mother's side, with many bearded uncles, who liked to party, walk around in the woods, play guitar, tell stories and laugh their asses off. He was Irish on his father's side. That side consisted of a country music listening, truck driving man with only one expression.

My brother had a friend who was adopted by an Italian couple and raised in Western PA. When he grew up, he found his biological mother, and discovered that he was related to the Hatfields. He went down through the Appalachians to meet her and learned about the people thereabouts. Then he went to Canada and lived with a tribe of indigenous people. Then he went to Taiwan. God only knows what that dude is up to know.

Read "A Culture of Honor" in Gladwell's book "Outliers." He goes into considerable detail.

It gets down to two points of view that a good scientist can appreciate.

FIRST PRINCIPLES

Have you ever pondered why there are so many redheads in Ireland and across the northernmost part of our hemisphere (e.g. Russia)? Conversely have you ever pondered why Africans are dark-skinned? It all has to do with the number of photons that hit your skin. If there are too many photons, you are at risk for skin cancer. If you have too few photons and aren't in the era of over-the-counter vitamin supplements and fortified milk, your body won't make enough Vitamin D. Those forces in dynamic tension with each other genetically select for fair-skinned people in the far north, and dark-skinned people near the equator. If you were to take a bunch of Africans and move them to Ireland, and a bunch of Irish and move them to the equator, and not allow either sunscreen or Vitamin D supplementation, then those two populations would not do well. Those that survived over a few hundred generations would look a lot different than the original seed populations - assuming there was enough genetic variability to allow for phenotype drift.

A similar discussion can be made to explain why descendants of West Africa have more fast twitch muscle (and so win the 100 meters at the Olympics) while Kenyans have more slow twitch muscle (and so are the winners of the Boston marathon year after year). It's all about their geography, and how Nature selected for those who were the best survivors in their respective countries.

The argument with Appalachian mountain people is that - for the most part - they come from similar Highland areas in northern Ireland and Scotland. Highlanders who lived on nonfertile soil were a lot different than the Irish who lived on the lowlands where the soil is coffee black. A Highlander is more likely to herd goats, and a lowlander is more likely to farm. Can you sneak in overnight and steal a farmer's yield? Nope... Can you sneak in overnight and steal a Highlander's herd? Yep... Would you steal a fellow's herd if you knew he and his kin 3 generations down would hunt you down and kill you and your kin, year after year? Nope... So which genetic type will flourish in the Highlands, and which will flourish where the soil is fertile and the farming is good?

On a personal note... It took me a long time to understand why my spouse and her Scotch-Irish dad held on to grudges for-e-ver. I mean... I'd hear the same story about how person A did him wrong year after year after year after... Same with the spouse. Do a bad thing and you will hear about it for the next 20 years. Can't let it go. So much emotional energy burned over so many years...

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